Saturday, November 24, 2012

City to rezone another flood plain for high density housing

The large-scale housing complex planned for Astoria has recently filed its Uniform Land Use Review Procedure form, starting a process by which the developers may be able to bring needed commercial space to an isolated part of the neighborhood.

The development, set to be built on the Hallets Cove peninsula along the East River on 1st Street and 27th Avenue, was designed to include 2,000 to 2,200 housing units, 80 percent of which would be market rate and 20 percent of which would be affordable housing geared toward seniors, Moesel said.

The area will need to be rezoned before the project is built, necessitating the review.

City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Astoria), who has not taken an official position on the Hallets Point project, said commercial properties are scarce on the peninsula, where many people already live in the Astoria Houses public housing development.

“I believe that that area absolutely needs development,” Vallone said. “They don’t have any banks. They don’t have any supermarkets.”

Vallone said the Hallets Point project has broad support and other developers are planning to build a similar project, Astoria Cove, adjacent to Hallets Point. Yet he said that while commercial development is needed but unlikely without the residential units, he had concerns about whether Con Edison has the infrastructure to bring those housing units on the grid, where the students would go to school and if more transportation options could be brought to the neighborhood.

Ah, so Pete is thinking about infrastructure, eh? Didn't he notice that the Halletts Cove peninsula was underwater during the recent storms? Actually, yeah, he did...

So we are going to rezone an area in order to house thousands more people in a flood zone? Haven't we learned from LIC, Gowanus and Rockaway?

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One Week in the Western Queens Gazette we had the following 'headlines.'

Vallone Brings Fresh Produce To Astoria Houses

Vallone Celebrates Islamic Festival Of Sacrifice

Vallone Attends Sandy Telethon In Woodside

Vallone Celebrates Diwali, The Hindu Festival Of Lights

Interfaith Center Hosts Cross-Cultural Event (Vallone picture)

Again, that is just one week.

Sort of reminds me the news reporting in some little sleepy tin-pot republic where a 'Mr. President For Life' harvests the crops, builds highways, opens dams, and keeps His People safe from the outside world and their own troubling thoughts.

While Astoria is ruled by the Vallones it will remain 'The Heart of Darkness.'

Someone should ask if daddy - or if anyone that has any ties to the Vallones - are involved with this project.

The reality is that at least 6,000 UNITS (any idea what that means in PEOPLE - hint this is Astoria where the community looks favorably on cellar apartments 'as a place for grandma' one Vallone appointee on the local community board once famously said).

One road leads into that area.

Far from public transportation,

next to the the 22 building Astoria Houses with its teaming 1000s,

one hospital (where there were once four),

shaky electric grid (flickering lights a local quirk),

congested streets whose population has doubled under Vallone father and son,

and a community that a few decades ago was a gem is now drab and dreary (a local website called 'Astoria Ugly' celebrates its architecture inspired by the likes of Pistilli-Caliendo).

The myth are hipsters moving in,

the reality is block after block of dreary hookah lounges full of grim men who people say dance at the mention of "jihad",

endless cheerless Greek or Balkan cafes and 'hot spots' (duplicated down to all having the same table settings)

a Greek-Spanish club scene catering to construction trade macho men and their articulate squeezes who live out on the island and enjoy Eurotrash techno bottle bars

That tried to make Bohemian Hall into an apartment building until outsiders wrestled control from the local talent,

and a neighborhood cuisine, once legendary, now hell bent on duplicating the gastronomic treats of Elmhurst.

Astoria whose geriatric leadership is ripe for a change for they have made it a place left behind ...

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